Colorado shooting victim’s story turns to one of romance

Two years after a man opened fire in a crowded Colorado theater, wounding Baton Rouge teenager Bonnie Kate Pourciau, her life has taken a turn toward the positive.

Zoghbi married long-time boyfriend, Max Zoghbi, on May 24 at the home of a family friend in Clinton.

Max Zoghbi surprised his wife after their wedding with a video chronicling her story, including a mission trip to Haiti, the Colorado shooting, her journey to recover and the couples engagement Jan. 10. It ends with him dressed in a suit, saying he is headed to the wedding.

That video went viral when he uploaded it to YouTube on Sept. 18.

Pourciau, then 18, was on a road trip from Seattle to Baton Rouge on July 20, 2012, when she and her friend, Elizabeth Sumrall, stopped at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, to watch the premiere of the latest Batman movie, “The Dark Knight Rises.” On that night, police said, James Holmes walked into the theater armed for war, killed 12 people and wounded 70. He shot Pourciau once in the leg, leaving her knee shattered and sentencing her to a lifetime of pain.

But for now, the former Pourciau, now Zoghbi, said she’s concentrating on her new married life.

“I had no idea that’s what he was doing,” Zoghbi said of the video. “It was a total surprise.”